I know people -- not a small number, in fact -- who do not believe in Election. They do not believe that God sovereignly chooses to save some. I begin to wonder if it's principles or semantics, so I want to examine the question in different terms.
1. Assuming we agree that some will be saved and some won't (if we don't agree on that, we have a much bigger problem), does God know who will be saved and who will not?
If you answer "No", we're talking about different Gods. Mine is omniscient. If "Yes", on to Question 2.
2. Is it possible for someone in the "God knows he'll be saved" group to not be saved (or vice versa -- someone in the "God knows she won't be saved" category ends up saved)?
If you answered "Yes", we are again talking about different Gods. Mine is omniscient and infallible. Yours either is misinformed or wrong. So, if "No", on to Question 3.
3. When Judgment Day comes will there be any in the "saved" group about whom God will say, "Hmph! I wouldn't have chosen that one" or any in the "unsaved" group about whom He would say, "Oh, my! It was My will to save that one. What went wrong?"?
If you answered "Yes", we are again talking about different Gods. The God I believe in is Sovereign and cannot fail to accomplish His will. If "No", on to the final question.
4. In heaven will there be those who can rightly say, "I was saved, at least in part, by my own contribution"? Conversely, in hell will there be any who could justly claim "I shouldn't be here; it's not what I deserve!"?
And now we're at the conclusion of the matter. If the "saved" and "unsaved" are known by God in such a way that these lists cannot change, if they are in those categories by the will of God, if God chose (willed) these groups to be what they are, and if saved people don't contribute to their salvation while the unsaved rightly earn their outcome, tell me again what the objection is to the doctrine of Election.
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